Returned from the Outback

Now that was a wild trip...I had so much fun and learned A LOT. I got to see the most beautiful scenery, I caught up with a high school friend that I haven't seen in over 15 years and I actually got to see some kangaroos. I was going to blog more but time just got away from me. So for now I will just post some of my favorite pictures during the trip. It's going to be hard to decide but I'll do my best.

On the last full day of sightseeing I headed to downtown Sydney and bought my Christmas present!! After TONS of research, converting Aussie dollars and collecting GST (government sales tax) we decided it was a must buy. I will post about the purchase further down in this post so keep reading... :-)
Checking out the Sydney Opera House...

Cockatoo's in the Botanical Gardens...
All those black blobs are bats hanging from the trees in the botanical gardens. At dusk they started to stir.

A beautiful view of the botanical gardens with downtown in the background.


In the blue mountains with the Three Sisters (rock formations) in the background. The blue haze in the far right background is oil from the Eucalyptic trees there, hence the name "blue mountains". :-)

Katoomba Falls. I took this picture riding on a glass bottom cable car going from one side of the mountain to the other.

My honey at Manly Beach...the water was definitely too cold to swim but that didn't stop all the surfers!
Night time view of Darling Harbor. We took a ferry over and had dinner on the harbor at blue fish.
YES!! I got a picture of the mighty fast Kangaroos! My dear friend Vanessa lives on some property where a pack of 20 - 30 roos come in her yard every morning. If you look closely you can see this mama and her joey eating next to her bent over. That's Monty the horse on the right. They make it a little hard to catch the roos on film as well. :-)
My friend lives out in the county about hour and half from Melbourne. I took a flight on Monday to Melbourne and stayed with her and her boyfriend for three days. They live in Mt. Franklin and this is the view from the back porch. Absolutely peaceful, beautiful! Bella and Monty the horses are missing from the picture and you can't hear the Australian birds singing!! :-(

Now, if you made it this far you're doing good! LOL! So my early Christmas present was a new digital SLR camera. If you known me for any length of time you know I LOVE TO TAKE PICTURES!!! I've been wanting (read whining) for a camera that I could zoom in with on objects, people, etc. Thanks to John's friend/co-worker I purchased a Canon EOS Rebel Xsi digital camera with an IS (18-200mm) lens and has 12.2 mega pixels! This thing is incredible!!!

Below are two pictures I was able to take before we had to head to the airport. My only regret is not getting the camera at the beginning of the trip because then I really could zoom in on those kangaroos and birds! Oh well, I've had 18 hours of flying time to read the manuals cover to cover now time to do some shooting...